Petitioners’ counsel questions police probe in Karnal duo case

Responding to the HT report (May 24) about the controversial grant of interim bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court to two Haryana industrialists — Perdipt Chaudhary and his father Prithvi Singh — the petitioners’ counsel, Karambir Singh Nalwa, has raised questions over the Punjab police’s probe in the case.

The father-son duo had been declared proclaimed of fenders in the drug racket case by the Patiala trial court on April 24 this year.

In a letter addressed to Hindustan Times, Nalwa, who was assisting senior advocate RS Cheema in the case, has said, “It is a typical case where in the name of fighting the drug menace, a money-minting racket appears to be thriving.”

The letter further reads, “It is a case where the Punjab police personnel, in blatant violation of the law, raided the premises of a licensed pharmaceutical manufacturer (Pioneer Laboratories at Rishi Nagar, Kar nal) outside their jurisdiction.”

HT had reported that justice Mehinder Singh Sullar had granted interim bail to the duo without issuing prior notice to the Punjab government counsel to oppose the application as per Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

“Meanwhile, the petitioners a re directed to appear/ surrender before the next date of hearing and the trial court will admit them to interim (provisional) bail on their furnishing adequate bail and surety bonds to its satisfaction,” justice Sullar had ordered on May 19 on the petitioners’ application seeking a stay of operation of the order dated April 24, by the Patiala trial court.

Stating that the news report projected a one-sided version, Nalwa has submitted that it was the case of the petitioners and the state of Punjab that no recovery was made in the October 7, 2013, search, and as per the Punjab police, it was effected on October 8, 2013.

But as per the Haryana government record, Punjab police officials were in own state on October 8, 2013, he added.

The counsel has mentioned that the petitioners had primarily sought transfer of the investigation from the Punjab police to any independent agency outside the jurisdiction of Punjab due to the blatant transgression of territorial jurisdiction by the Punjab police while conducting the alleged illegal raid on October 7, 2013, in Karnal and the serious irregularities committed by Punjab police.

An FIR in the case was registered on September 18 last year under the NDPS Act at Shambhu police station in Patiala district.

The Punjab police had claimed to have made a huge recovery of synthetic drugs and powder used to make drugs, including 1,570 capsules and banned drugs, after a raid on the petitioners’ factory premises.